> -----Original Message----> > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Nick Burrett > Sent: 28 November 2001 10:21 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: ProVSD > > Idaya needs a source of income. They should deserve some returns for > the work that they have input, otherwise they cannot afford to sponsor > the project. Then the project dies completely.
I think this is true and I think the general approach to open source should be that if you make a contribution you should fully realise that people may use that commercially and really you should be proud that your code is being used rather than feeling bitter that you are not benefiting financially from its use. > The only argument that I've seen so far on this topic is that the > community is unhappy because Idaya is selling a piece of software > which includes their own extensions and some minor contributions from > the community on this list. So what ! If you don't like this, then > why not request that your changes be removed from the source tree ? Again I agree with this if you are not prepared that your code will be used by others, commercially or not, and you are not willing to contribute code to a project that may be used by others to make money and those people may call the software a different name and modify it without sharing their improvements/changes straight away so that they can gain a commercial advantage. This is perfectly natural I mean if I when to an ISP and said hey I have this great product FreeVSD that I can install for you and I want you to pay me then what is to stop them saying I will just download it free and do it ourselves. Where as if you have extras like Idaya do like windows apps and probably extra code in proVSD too then people would have reason to buy it because they can't just go and do it themselves. It is only natural that an open source project of this size should lag behind after all why should the core developers put themselves out of a job by making FreeVSD better than ProVSD and stopping any successes their sales people might have which would allow them to continue development. > These systems are inherently complex. If done properly, they take > many man years of work. The systems are targetted at system > administrators > who know the ins and outs of their operating systems, not at end users. > There isn't much cash to be made from administrators since they can > usually figure out what they are doing wrong themselves. Too true, Idaya should focus on working with ISP's so they can make money on VSClient from the ISP's resellers and VSMail from the end user not on selling to an ISP perhaps considering giving away VSDControl as shareware and charging a very small fee then licensing the use of the other two on a per user basis and working closely with ISPs. They need market exposure before they start charging big prices people need to be using this software. Brendan ------------------------- The freeVSD Support List -------------------------- Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=subscribe%20freevsd-support Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=unsubscribe%20freevsd-support Archives: http://freevsd.org/support/mail-archives/freevsd-support -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
